Saw this on machinery trader. https://www.machinerytrader.com/listings/construction-equipment/for-sale/23684277/2000-cat-d3c-iii
I wonder if the extending wings are for transport ? What advantage would the single piece grousers have?
Pads have a bunch of different names but the one I've heard the most are pyramid pads. They are low ground pressure pads that will enable the machine to travel in places where a person could sink. I've seen a couple of machine kind of like that and I was told they were working in the rice paddies.
I think I need it
See a Lot of Komatsu units in the US South with the Pyramid shoes, swampers so the rice paddy concept fits. Pushing mush with that shallow blade even with tip extensions can see in that as well.
we used to call them swamp pads. I ran a d6c that had them on temporarily for a job. you could go through very soft ground that you normally would stay away from. if you got stuck though, you were really stuck. it would take about an hour to clean the undercarriage at the end of the day . if the track frames were slightly bent or out of line, or the c frame slightly loose the pads would nibble at the c frame at the very front of the track. I seem to recall the ones we used were 36". we just changed the complete tracks-( rails and pads) as an assembly
There's a d6 in the background with the same style pads, I think rice paddy also. What I'm really wondering is what you're looking at equipment in Japan for? New import export business Dave?
Like 56W I always referred to them as swamp pads.
Apex grousers here in Oz
It's also a Japan-only model, so like the excavator product line I wonder just how much it has in common with its non-Japanese-built brothers..?
While lots of iron shows "Japan only" on the books and paperwork, everything made in Japan is meant to end up somewhere else.
I don't know about anyone else, but for the excavator line there is plenty of documentation regarding machines built for the Japan-only market that find their way to other parts of the world. I'm not aware of any similar documentation for the track-type tractor line.
That's what I'm saying. Everything built in Japan is meant to eventually be exported to another country.
Just for the record, the pyramid pads have nothing to do with ground pressure/flotation apart from their physical size. The pyramid design is to help with self-cleaning, insofar as the grousers pull out of the ground cleanly unlike a conventional dozer pad. Much like a padfoot vs sheepsfoot roller.
Theres two grey market excavators in Pennsylvania I can speak for. It a bit away from Japan last i checked
I ran a Komatsu creating wetlands with those pyramid pads. It was remarkable how it would go over wet material. As Cmark stated those pads stayed clean and left a neat looking surface wherever it went.
Machines originally built only for the internal Japanese market don't appear in the Cat Service Information System. What I was trying to say is that for grey-market excavators there is documentation that cross-references the Japan-built machine to a non-Japan-built machine for the purpose of getting Parts & Service information - it's called the Commonality Chart. There is no similar documentation for track-type tractors AFAIK, and because the particular tractor that was linked in the OP's post "does not exist" as far as SIS is concerned, the logical deduction is that it was originally built for the Japan-only market. Getting parts & service info for it might be challenging.
I was looking to see what kind of prices a D3 brings in reference to another post about what one would cost and came across that one.
True but you have two sides of a triangle pushed into the ground which must give you a lower ground pressure coz there is more track in contact with the ground, bit like the folded pleats on an oil filter element gives a much bigger surface area to catch contaminants than one single wrap around piece of paper element. I have used both pyramids and normal grousers but wide ones and the pyramid pads are far better floatation, just my 2 cents worth. Cheers.